Diplomacy of epic incompetence

6:03 PM,
Sep. 15, 2013

Written by

Charles
KRAUT-

The president of the United States takes to the airwaves to urgently persuade the nation to pause before doing something it has no desire to do in the first place.

Strange. And it gets stranger still. That "strike Syria, maybe" speech begins with a heart-rending account of children consigned to a terrible death by a monster dropping poison gas. It culminates with the argument that the proper response - the most effective way to uphold fundamental norms, indeed human decency - is a flea bite: something "limited," "targeted" or, as so memorably described by Secretary of State John Kerry, ...